Box Office: Power Rangers is No Match for Beauty and the Beast

March 28, 2017 - By Alex

Power Rangers had a solid opening weekend, $40.3 million, but still nowhere near Beauty and the Beast‘s massive $90.4 million 2nd weekend.

With $90.4 million, down only 48.3%, Beauty and the Beast offered up the 4th best 2nd weekend ever in the US. The musical’s 2nd frame stands behind The Avengers ($103.1 million), Jurassic World ($106.6 million) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($149.2 million). Beauty and the Beast is also 4th at the 10-day mark with $319 million, again behind the same three movies in the same order. It’s safe to say this is a massive hit for Disney.

Beauty and the Beast is now guaranteed to land somewhere between $500 million and $600 million, and even that might be me underestimating it. There’s a good chance Beauty and the Beast goes as high as $650 million. I mean that 48.3% drop is pretty astonishing for a hit this big and it bodes very well for the film’s box office legs. Now we wait and see how high Beauty and the Beast can go.

Power Rangers opened in 2nd with $40.3 million, about where most expected this $100 million film to land going into the weekend. As usual for them Lionsgate sold international distribution for Power Rangers ahead of release, meaning they won’t be getting anything more from that pie. At the same time that money already payed for most of the film’s budget, leaving them to cover only about $25 million in the US (not including distribution costs and advertising). Right now Power Rangers is headed for $100 million in the US, with all of that in mind the film is performing well enough for them and depending on international numbers (not great so far) a sequel might eventually get the green light.

Kong: Skull Island dropped to 3rd with $14.7 million, off by 47.3% versus last frame. Good numbers for Kong, $133.8 million in 17 days means the monster movie should easily hit $150 million domestically. Again, that’s nothing outstanding considering Kong: Skull Island cost $185 million, it just means there’s now a better chance of getting more Kong in the future, and that’s on top of that Godzilla vs Kong set for 2020.

Life had an underwhelming start in 4th, only $12.5 million. This one carries a $58 million budget and based on that debut it’s not going much higher than $30-35 million in the US, so good luck trying to recover the costs. For that to happen Life needs to be significantly bigger internationally (not the case currently).

Logan rounds out the top 5 with $10.3 million, losing 42%, its smallest drop yet. It took 24 days to pass $200 million domestically and with $201.6 million Logan is now $4.7 million behind X-Men: Days of Future Past. It’s not gaining ground as fast as I thought it would by now, so I’m starting to doubt Logan can make it much higher than $230 million in the US.

CHIPs was the other wide release of the weekend, opening in 7th with $7.7 million. Obviously that’s not great and it’s setting the R-rated comedy up for an eventual $20 million total in the US, not enough to pay for its $25 million budget.